


Meddling in time

by Shaak



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Humor, Especially in later chapters, Grindeldore, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-04 18:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17309996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaak/pseuds/Shaak
Summary: Set after Crimes of Grindelwald.Grindelwald wants to get the blood pact back, and decides to kidnap Newt to do so. But when he apparates with him, they find themselves in Hogwarts, in a time that definitely isn't theirs. As they try to go back to their time, Newt learns more than he wished about Dumbledore, and Grindelwald is unsettled in his feelings and beliefs, as they end up having to fight an enemy they should never have met.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I write about Fantastic Beasts, so I hope the characters won't be too OOC. The story will be in 4 or 5 parts, unless I come up with more ideas. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Newt Scamander was worried. One of his niffler had escaped, again, and he had been chasing it for ten minutes without managing to grab him. He saw him turn left, obviously following an old lady who was wearing a golden, shiny watch. As the woman stopped before a buiding and looked in her bag, the niffler tried to steal the watch, and Newt approched them slowly before jumping on her to get his niffler. The woman gave him an odd look, and he muttered an apology before getting up, shaking his head at the niffler who struggled to break free.

As he turned around, though, he found himself facing a wand. At the other hand of the wand, Grindelwald looked smug. Newt gave a quick look around him, but the street was now empty, and Grindelwald wouldn't hesitate to cast a spell on him if he tried to get his own wand. Havng no other choice, he let Grindelwald grab him by the collar, his wand now on his neck.

“Well, Mr Scamander, you should be more cautious. Now, I want you to give me what you stole from me at the rally.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about” Newt lied.

“Give. Me. My. Pendant.”

“I don't have it.”

“Where is it ?”

“With the one person you will never be able to take it from” Newt said in what he hoped sounded brave and convincing.

Grindelwald held him even tighter and hissed angrily “You gave it to Dumbledore, didn't you?”

Newt didn't answer. 

“Well then, we're about to see just how much Dumbledore cares about you. But first, we're gonna get out of here, we wouldn't want aurors to find us, now would we ?”

Newt knew what that meant. Grindelwald was going to take him in one of his secret places and keep him there until Dumbledore agreed to exchange the blood pact for his life.

 

A moment later, they had indeed disappeared and reappeared someplace else, but Newt almost tripped out of shock. He couldn't fathom why Grindelwald would want to come here. At Hogwarts, of all places. Although something felt off, but he couldn't quite tell what. 

Grindelwald had let go of his arm, so he immediately took his wand in his hand, the other one still holding the Niffler. Grindelwald seemed to be at least as surprised as he was, which was weird considering it was him who had chosen to apparate there. A second later, though, he also had his wand pointing at Newt, and they stared at each other defiantly, for a little while, until they heard footsteps. Newt had nothing to worry about, but Grindelwald knew he would have a hard time leaving the school if people found out he was there. He knew this was Hogwarts, because he had seen pictures of it years ago. 

He tried to go for the nearest door to hide and try to understand how on Earth they could be at Hogwarts, but he wasn't quick enough and some students had already seen him. The students, a girl and a boy, gave both Newt and Grindelwald a weird look and kept going, but just a few moments later they stopped and started arguing. Newt could only hear some words, like “eater” and “skeptical” but couldn' make sense of that. Anyway, the boy was back. He eyed the two men suspiciously, 

" Excuse me" he said,"but I've never seen you here and, no offense, but you're way too old to be students. Who exactly are you ?"

His friend punched his arm and shook her head. She gave them a shy smile but her hand was quite visibly near her wand, ready to use it if needed.

“Sorry about him” she said, 'It's just that we don't have a lot of external visitors these days, as I'm sure you understand, with what's going on”

Newt had no idea of what was happening, but Grindelwald seemed offended that he had not been recognized, even though he should have been grateful, so he decided to speak up before he could. 

" Hi, hum... I'm Newt and that's uh... Whatever. Do you... Do you know where I could find Dumbledore ?"

The girl squinted her eyes and seemed even more suspicious, while Grindelwald huffed, but didn't say anything.

"Why ?"

"Because I want to speak to him ?" Newt said, but it sounded more like a question, and he honestly didn't want to speak to that girl anymore. If he could find Dumbledore, and  
drag Grindelwald with him, then everything would be alright. But part of him couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. He didn't recognize any of the paintings hanging on the walls around him, and the fact that students that obviously weren't in their first year wouldn't recognize Grindelwald seemed a bit odd, especially with the latest events. The rally in Paris had been all over the newspapers and in every conversation for over a month. 

The girl opened her mouth to answer, but Grindelwald decided he was bored with her, and talked before she could. He gave her a warm smile and clasped his hand on Newt's shoulder, who tried very hard not to flinch.

“Well, see, this is Newt Scamander. Surely you must know he's a very good friend of Dumbledore.”

The boy shrugged. “Yeah but that guy's way too young to be Scamander.”

If Grindelwald was surprised at this, he didn't show. 

“That's the thing. He woke up like that, and as you said, that's not normal. That's why we need to see Dumbledore, so he can fix him up.”

The students didn't seem entirely convinced, so Grindelwald yanked Newt's hand from under his vest, showing the Niffler.

“Always with some animal, this one! If you still have doubts” he said as he leaned casually against the wall, being as charismatic as he could “ask him anything about any creatures, he knows them all any way.” 

The girl took that literally, and asked Newt a bunch of very specific questions about animals and about himself. Newt found it very unsettling that she knew so much, but tried not to show it. He seemed to have convinced her, because the two students took them to a huge wooden door. 

“That's his office, but he's often away lately, so I don't know if he's in it.”

They entered the room, and Newt knew it wasn't Dumbledore's office. There was a huge statue that served as a door, and it was quite obvious that you needed a password to get in. However, a phoenix hovered over Grindelwald, sat on his shoulder and the door suddenly opened. Newt casted a suspicious look to his enemy, but he soon realised that Grindelwald didn't know what had happened either.

Newt realised they were in the Headmaster's office, and he couldn't see why they would find Dumbledore there. But when he took a closer look, he realised that once again, things weren't as he remembered. The desk was filled with many weird, funny objects of every sizes, there were what seemed to be yellow candies everywhere in the room, and, most of all, there was a picture of the current headmaster framed on the wall. Newt was pretty sure Dumbledore had once told him that the pictures hanging in that office were those of previous headmasters, but surely that couldn't be right. 

Grindelwald was looking around in disdain, his wand still firmly in his hand, obiously prepared to duel at any time if needed, but he didn't seem to be as dumbfounded as Newt. But then, he probably never had been in Hogwarts before. 

Suddenly, an old man appeared in the chair. He had a long white beard, long white hair, wore glasses and he was looking at his darkened hand, before picking up a ring that was placed on the desk, obviously not having seen them yet.  
In less than a second, Grindelwald was in his face, with his wand pointed at him. The old man looked up, and didn't express his surprise in any way but with a raise of his eyebrow. His eyes shifted from Grindelwald to Newt, and then back to Grindelwald. He then put the ring he had been looking at down, and calmly said:

"Well, that was unexpected". 

Grindelwald held his wand in an even more threatening way and asked "Who are you?"

The old man had what sounded like a small chuckle and got up, obviously unbothered by the threat. 

"I think you'd find it hard to believe, Gellert" he said as he grabbed some paper and a quill. He quickly wrote something down, an owl came in by the window and left a second later with the note. 

Being called by his first name had been offputting for Grindelwald, who took way longer than he usually would have to react and demand that the old man stopped writing. The owl was gone before he could do anything.

"What did you write?"

"You'll find out real soon". That being said, the old man sat back down on his chair, apparently waiting for something. He did't occur another word, no matter how much Grindelwald tried to make him. Newt was checking out every corner of the room, trying to understand what was going on. He read every name under the pictures, looked at every object in the room, stared quite openly at the old man. Then, the owl came back. The man had apparently grown bored of Grindelwald's wand being so close to him, and he made for his own wand, before changing his mind and slapping the Dark Lord's hand, so hard Grindelwald actually dropped his wand. But when he picked it up, he was looking at the man with a very odd look. To Newt, he seemed to be angry, worried, and to have had an illumination all at once. He didn't try to do anything more, though, and that in itself was enough to make Newt wonder what on Earth he had understood. 

The old man read the note, then ripped it off and looked at both of them again.

"Very strange indeed" he muttered, more to himself than to them. "I wonder how that is."

Newt frowned, trying to make sense of everything he saw and heard. He thought of all the details that didn't add up with what he knew of the school, of all the objects he had seen, all the names and dates under the pictures... And that tiny little object he had found on one of the shelves, between two books, and that had looked familiar but he hadn't been able to get why until now. He looked at Grindelwald, who had taken a step back and stared at the man as if he was some sort of ghost that had come to haunt him. And suddenly, it all made sense.

"Professor Dumbledore"

Newt wasn't the one who had spoken. Actually, none of them were. They all turned around to face the newcomer.


	2. Chapter 2

" Harry" Dumbledore said gently, "what are you doing here?"

"It's time for our lesson, Professor".

"Yes, yes, I know. I meant, why didn't you knock?"

There was not an ounce of blame in Dumbledore's tone, but then that wasn't surprising to Newt. Harry, on the other hand, seemed a bit ashamed of himself.

"I... Fawkes let me in".

"That is something he tends to do, these days. I'll need to sort this out. Now, Harry, would you please wait outside for a few minutes?"

Harry made for the door but Grindelwald had been quicker. “No one's leaving or entering this room anymore” he said.

Both Newt and Harry thought Dumbledore was going to refuse, but he did no such thing. Instead, he merely asked:

“How did you two end up here ?”

“No idea” Newt answered “I kind of hoped you could tell us.”

“I don't know either. Of course, time travelling is possible, but I only ever heard of going in the past, not in the future. This is quite a miracle, if, of course, we can call it that.”

“Sir” Harry timidly interrupted, obviously trying to understand what was going on. “I thought you said time travel was dangerous, back when Hermione and I used the time-turner”

“Oh, it is dangerous. Thankfully, neither Newt nor Grindelwald has to worry about finding themselves face to face with their present selves, but it is still not a safe situation, and we need to send them back to their time immediately.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Newt was suddenly hopeful. He didn't like to be there, and was having quite a hard time keeping the Niffler in his hand. The sooner he got home, the sooner the beast would be safe.

“No” Dumbledore admitted, and Newt felt that rush of hope fade away. “Not yet, anyway. It would be way easier if I knew how you ended up here, but I'm sure I'll manage to find a way. In the meantime, you'd be nice to stay here, speak to no one and, obviously, not kill anyone. Any help or ideas are, on the other hand, welcome.”

Newt did as he was told and sat down, but he had no idea how to help. Grindelwald looked rather unhappy, and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, glaring at Newt as if it was his fault. Harry walked closer to Dumbledore and asked, quietly so only the headmaster would hear him:

“Sir, I'm sorry but I thought you said this was Grindelwald?”

“It is indeed.”

“But... isn't he the greatest dark lord except for Voldemort? Aren't you worried he might...”

Dumbledore smiled softly. “I see Miss Granger finally managed to get you to read A History of Magic. Yes, Grindelwald was... Is a very powerful Dark Lord. But, unlike Voldemort, he understands and respects the rules of magic. He will not harm anyone in this time, I can assure you. I do have to send him and Newt back to their time as soon as I can, as I'm sure you understand. I hope to achieve that soon enough that we will be able to see at least one memory before you head off to bed.”

Harry nodded and stepped away as Dumbledore started to look furiously through his things, probably trying to find an idea on how to travel back in time. He noticed the angry, mean look Grindelwald gave him, but did not lower his head. He was not afraid of Voldemort, and he would not let another dark lord scare him either. In the end, they both looked away when Newt cleared his throat, trying to get attention.

“I don't think I can hold the Niffler much longer” he said. Dumbledore nodded, made a few moves with his wand, and smiled.

“You can let him go, he cannot leave this room anymore.”

“He may try to steal things from you, wouldn't that be an issue?”

Dumbledore said nothing but a slight move of his head told Newt to let the Niffler down, so he did. The beast started running around, looking for shiny objects to play with.

“Now, I believe you should tell me exactly what happened before you ended up here, it may help us figure out what happened.”

“Well”, Newt started “I was trying to get my Niffler back, he had escaped from my watch because Bundy was having a hard time with the...”

“Who the here cares?” Cut Grindelwald, rolling his eyes. “Your little pet troubles played no role in what happened, it's not necessary to bore us with them”.

Newt glared at him, but sped up the story. “Anyway, when I found him, Grindelwald here was threatening me with his wand. He wanted to abduct me to force Dum- well, you, to give him the blood pact back, which is quite ridiculous, because no one ever said he has the blood pact anyway.”

“And how would you know it is a blood pact unless Dumbledore told you, Mr Scamander?”

“So what, you tried to apparate and ended up in Hogwarts, like fifty years later?” Harry asked. It sounded like a bunch of nonsense to him.

“More like seventy years” Dumbledore mumbled. “But kidnapping, Gellert, really?”

“He stole from me! He comitted the first crime, I only replied.”

“You killed Leta!” Newt shouted angrily, but Grindelwald only shrugged.

“She wouldn't be dead had she been smarter. This is hardly my fault.”

Newt was furious and made for his wand, ready to duel with Grindelwald here and now if needed, but suddenly the other wizard seemed no longer interested in him. Instead, Grindelwald walked to the desk and shot Dumbledore a dumbfounded look.

“Is that what I think it is?” He asked slowly, showing the ring Dumbledore was first looking at when he apparated in the office.

Dumbledore did not even look up, and answered a firm “No.” but Grindelwald only laughed bitterly.

“I know it is. I spent so many years looking for it, and look at that. You, Albus Dumbledore, gave all those grand speeches, defeated me, and then found them all on your own. I can only see two of them here, so where's the third one?”

Harry and Newt shared a confused look, but Dumbledore still didn't answer, even though he was now looking at Grindelwald.

Grindelwald stared at him with his jaw shut, and Harry could have sworn there was something way too sad to be anger in his eyes, but he couldn't figure out what it was exactly.

“Is that what it is about? What it's always been about? You wanting to find them without me?”

“You could not be more wrong” Dumbledore finally said, still in a very calm voice. “These may be what you think, but I can assure you that they're not in my possession because I wanted them.”

“Where's the third one?”

“I don't have it”

“You're lying. You've never “changed your mind”, have you? Maybe you were so desperate toget rid of me that you provoked that fight with Aber-”

“Enough!” This time, Dumbledore had stood up, and was glaring so hard at Grindelwald that both Newt and Harry took a step back. “Harry,” he continued calmly “you will take Newt to Hagrid. I'm sure he would like to meet Buckbeak.”

“But professor, you said they shouldn't talk to ...”

“What if someone sees me?”

“Take him to Hagrid, show him Buckbeak, then come back. At this time of the day, no one should see you, and even if they do, just pretend that Newt is interested in buying Buckbeak. Besides, a ten minutes conversation with Hagrid should not harm anyone or threaten the world's stability. Now leave.”

He had spoken calmly but in a tone that left no room for negociation. Quietly, Harry and Newt left, after Newt had prevented the niffler from stealing a pocket watch.

Harry and Newt walked silently, neither of them really daring to talk about what they had seen. It was quite obvious that they had the same sort of relationship to Dumbledore, but also that they both weren't used to seeing him lose his temper.  
However, if Harry died to know what was happening in the office and who Grindelwald really was; Newt, on the other hand, rather hoped he wouldn't have to see more of this, ever again. He wasn't stupid, he knew that the two men had been close once, close enough to make a blood pact, but he had no desire to know anyhting about Dumbledore's private life, and Grindelwald made his skin crawl. He was actually pretty glad Dumbledore had sent them away. 

They arrived to Hagrid's house, and Newt saw the huge, beautiful hipogriff that was standing near it. Forgetting everything about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, he walked to it, smiling. The creature was amazing. As he went to touch it, a huge man walked out of the house and yelled at him to step back. Harry went to talk to him, but Newt didn't listen long enough to know what he said. The hipogriff had bent over, so he did the same. Then, he held his hand out and slowly touched his face. He had no idea what Harry had told Hagrid, but he was now telling him everything about Buckbeak. They talked for a few minutes, genuinely happy at how much they had in common, until Harry interrupted.

“Er.. I think we should head back now, Dumbledore said not to stay too long.”

Newt sighed, having no desire to go back, but he knew he had to. He said goodbye to Hagrid and Buckbeak, and followed Harry back to the castle. 

When they entered the headmaster's office again, Dumbledore was sitting on his chair and Grindelwald was sitting on the desk, looking at his darkened hand, obviously upset. When he heard them, Dumbledore yanked his hand from Grindelwald's quickly. 

“This is ridiculous” Grindelwald muttered “Surely there must be something else you can...”

“I said no.” Dumbledore smiled at Newt. “I guess you liked Hagrid, didn't you ?”

Newt was about to answer when Harry let out a cry of pain. Harry felt like someone was piercing through his head. He knew that pain well, but hadn't felt it in a few months. He fell on the floor, his hands on his scar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this new chapter! I know some of you may be frustrated that I focused on Newt and Harry going to Hagrid's and not on Dumbledore's conversation with Grindelwald, but don't worry, you'll hear about it again later on. 
> 
> I said that this would be in 4 or 5 parts, but now I think it will be a bit longer than that, maybe 6 or 7 chapters, we'll see. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this story!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me longer to update, I started my internship on Monday and thus I have less time to write. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I think there will be about three more chapters, so we're about halfway through :D

Mere seconds later, Dumbledore was kneeling beside him. 

“Is he alright?” Newt asked, but Dumbledore didn't answer. When Harry sat up, the pain gone, Dumbledore asked: “What did you see ?”

“Nothing”. It was true, he hadn't seen or felt anything from Voldemort, he had only felt his own pain. It reminded him of his first year, when his scar would hurt whenever Quirell was around. But there was no way Voldemort was in the school. 

“That means he may have seen inside your head. You have to close your mind, Harry!” Dumbledore said calmly but firmly. 

“I thought you said he wouldn't try again, not after what happened in the ministry.” 

“I do not know how Voldemort thinks, Harry. I can only guess, and as I have told you before, I can be wrong. It is essential that you close your mind.”

Harry nodded and said that he would try, not daring to tell him that he couldn't. He had never succeeded, and he almost felt like the occlumancy lessons with Snape made everything worse. 

“That boy is too young to block a legilimens.” Grindelwald said, not bothering to actually look at Harry. 

“Voldemort isn't a legilimens” Dumbledore answered as he helped Harry to stand up again. 

“I thought only legilimens could read minds” Newt frowned at Dumbledore.

“Normally yes, but this is a very particular case.”

“But professor” Harry interrupted “if Voldemort did look into my head, why could I feel it ? He never knew I could see through him, not until what happened to Mr Weasley, at least.”

Before Dumbledore could answer, Grindelwald had walked to Harry and stared at him intensely, as if he thought he would understand everything about him just by scrutinizing his face. 

“Who's that Voldemort man ? How is he linked to you?” 

Harry took a step back but answered. “He killed my parents.”

“So?”

“I... He tried to kill me and failed.”

“What spell did you use ?”

“None, I was one year old.”

“And now you can see through his eyes?”

“No, well... Sometimes, but I can't control it.”

Grindelwald briefly raised his eyebrows before letting out a suspicious sound. He went to stand near Newt and whispered to him: “Well, that boy certainly is a mystery. Now I can see why Albus is so fond of _him”_

Newt fought the urge to roll his eyes. The way Grindelwald had emphasized the “him” made it very clear that he couldn't undersand why Dumbledore liked Newt. Now that he thought about it, the only times Grindelwald had actually spoken to him personally was to imply he wasn't worthy of Dumbledore's attention. Newt didn't care about what Grindelwald thought of him, if anything he took his dislike as a compliment, but with all that he had heard in the past few hours, with the way Grindelwald behaved with the old Dumbledore, it now sounded like some sort of weird jealousy. That made him very uncomfortable, and Newt stepped away from him to get closer to Dumbledore.

“So, that Voldemort, he's a dark wizard?”

“Yes” Dumbledore answered. “But this is none of your concern, Newt” he added with a smile. “You only need to care about going home.”

“But maybe I can help. What if this all happened because I'm supposed to help you with this?”

Dumbledore smiled but slowly shook his head. “This is very unlikely, Newt. You being here is nothing but a mistake that we need to fix before it harms anyone. Don't worry about your future.” 

“But you still don't know how to send us back.”

“Indeed I don't. I am starting to get a few ideas though, so I'm sure we will find a way soon.”

Newt nodded. He wished he could help, but his knowledge in magic didn't involve much about time-travelling. He thought that Grindelwald may know much more than him about it, yet the other wizard was still to propose anything. Grindelwald had barely spoken about returning home, generally just staying silent as the others talked about how to send them back. Newt found it rather strange, he would have thought Grindelwald would be in a hurry to go back. 

“Professor” Harry suddenly said, as if he had just remembered something. “With all this, I forgot to tell you, but I got Slughorn's memory.”

This seemed to please Dumbledore, whose eyes widened a bit. He was about to say smething, but didn't, and instead looked back and forth between Harry and Grindelwald and Newt. He seemed to be hesitating between seeing the memory and finding a way to fix the current situation.

“I know the priority is to send Newt and... Grindelwald to their time, sir, but if Voldemort really tried to see into my head, maybe we don't have much time left to figure everything out.” Harry said, and Dumbledore agreed. He didn't like the idea of letting Newt and Grindelwald alone in the office, nor that of looking into the pensieve instead of taking care of this issue, but he had to admit they didn't have much of a choice. Voldemort was too dangerous, and could decide to start a violent war any moment. 

He therefore told Newt and Grindelwald to stay there for a few minutes, that Harry and he had something they needed to do and that they wouldn't be long. 

Once Dumbledore and Harry were gone, Newt was uneasy. It was the first time he was alone with Grindelwald since they apparated in the future. He sat far away from the other wizard and hoped he wouldn't speak to him. 

A few minutes later, the doorknob moved and both wizards looked with interest as a man entered the room and stopped in his tracks when he spotted them.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked in an authoritarian voice. 

“Why should we answer?” Grindelwald asked back defiantly, but still a bit amused. “We don't know who you are.”

“You should talk now, because the professor Dumbledore does not take kindly to find strangers in his office.”

“Oh but he knows we're here. What he's not expecting, though, is your presence. Who do you think he's going to be mad at ? Personally, I think that, for once, it won't be me.”

The man glared at him, closed the door and never one lowered his eyes. The Niffler came at his feet, trying to see if the newcomer had any interesting object, and the man took a step back, shooing the beast with his robe in a smooth gesture. 

“Well then, we're all going to wait for him, and we'll see what happens, won't we?”

Grindelwald shrugged and grabbed the ring on Dumbledore's desk. He turned it in his hand, looking at the stone on top of it with attention and passing his finger on the crack in it. Lost in his thoughts, he did not hear Dumbledore and Harry come back and jumped when Dumbledore said, calmly as always, “Put that down”. He hadn't said Grindelwald's name because he knew it wasn't needed. Grindelwald didn't even look at him and simply threw the ring on the desk. 

Then, Dumbledore turned to the man who hadn't been there when they'd left. 

“Severus, can I help you?”

“I... What is going on ?”

“This is a very long story, we don't exactly have time for this. What can I do for you?”

Snape was obviously annoyed, but didn't push it further. 

“I wished to speak to you. Privately” he added, glaring at Harry, who glared back. 

“Can't it wait tomorrow?” Dumbledore asked, not wanting to lose any more time.

“I'm afraid it can't. I need to speak with you now.”

Dumbledore nodded and went outside the office with Snape. When the door closed, Grindelwald looked at Harry. 

“Who was that?”

“Snape. Worse teacher ever.”

Harry didn't really know why he answered all of Grindelwald's questions. He knew that this man was dangerous and had killed -or maybe would kill- many people, but he still found him somewhat charming and something made him want to talk to him, to trust him. That, he thought, was probably one of most dangerous things about the man. Harry also knew, deep down, that he hoped that if he was nice to Grindelwald, maybe he'd tell him what happened with Dumbledore. Harry couldn't help but be curious. Dumbledore was his favourite teacher, his mentor, and yet since Grindelwald had arrived, he felt like he didn't know his headmaster that much. 

“It seems that this school is much more interesting in the future than it is in 1927.” He said, shooting Newt a contemptous look. 

When Dumbledore entered the room again, he looked annoyed, but quickly regained his ever so calm look. Snape glared at everyone in the room -except for Dumbledore, of course- and left. 

Harry waited a few seconds, to be sure Snape wouldn't hear, then asked: “So, professor, Voldemort made horcruxes ?”

“Yes, Harry, it seems so. This is going to be really helpful for us, but for now, I think we really need to send Newt and Grindelwald back. I asked Snape to bring me some ingredients that, I believe, can be helpful to us.”

“Horcruxes?” Grindelwald asked; He looked back and forth between Dumbledore's darkened hand and the ring he had thrown on the desk, and then squinted.

“That Voldemort” he said angrily “made a horcrux with my stone?” 

Dumbledore was slightly surprised that Grindelwald knew what horcruxes were, but chose not to mention it. 

“This is not your stone. But yes, I believe he did.”

Grindelwald was angry and offended, but then he realised something. 

“Why did you do it?”

“Why did I do what?”

“You knew it was a horcrux, didn't you? Why did you try to use it ?” There was no anger in Grindelwald's voice, he sounded genuinely curious, and perhaps a bit sad. Dumbledore never answered, and Harry was disappointed. There was obviously a story between the two men, a story that seemed to be link to the ring, but he couldn't understand what it was. 

Newt, on the other hand, did not want to know anything about Grindelwald and Dumbledore's past, but he was starting to worry. He worried about the old Dumbledore, and the future, that semed rather dark. He had no idea what an horcrux was, but he had fully understood that this Voldemort was a great threat to everyone. But he was also worried about his present, and how they would defeat Grindelwald, especially now that he had seen that whatever bond existed between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the past still existed, and not only because of the blood pact. He trusted Dumbledore, but he could see the way the old man acted with Grindelwald, and he knew that present-days Dumbledore was going to suffer, no matter what happened. 

Suddenly, Snape was back. He gave Dumbledore a bunch of ingredients. “You still won't tell me why you need this? Or even who these people are ?”

“I'm sorry Severus, but it is best if no one knows.”

“No one but Potter, apparently” Snape muttered, glaring at Harry before leaving again. 

Dumbledore started mixing up ingredients in a bowl, and, once he was done, looked at Newt.

“Now, if this works properly...”

“What are you planning on doing?” Grindelwald asked. 

“Just to give you some potion that will help anchor the time-travelling, and I'll try to send you back with a spell. If I can connect with your time, that is to say my old self, it should anchor the spell as well, and send you in the right time.”

Grindelwald shrugged, but Newt was uneasy. This sounded like it could easily go wrong.

“Now, as I was saying, the Newt from this time does not remember this, he told me so earlier, in the note I destroyed. That means that you will have to make sure you both forget what happened today. Changing the past, or the future, knowingly could have desastrous consequences. I hope you will not decide to be reckless.” He looked at Grindelwald. 

“The message... That was from me?” Newt asked, and Dumbledore nodded. “Why am I not here? Why am I not fighting this Voldemort?”

“I never said you were not fighting, and I will not say you are either. Knowing the future is very dangerous, Newt, which is why you will have to make everyone forget about this.”

“Alright, but... Are you sure we can't stay and help?”

Grindelwald snorted, and then looked at Dumbledore. The two men seemed to have a silent conversation then, staring into each other eyes until Grindelwald looked away, obviously annoyed. 

Dumbledore gave the potion to Newt, who took it after managing to grab the niffler, knowing when to accept his defeat, and Grindelwad, and then sat at his desk, his eyes closed. He concentrated for a while before saying the spell that was meant to send them back. When he opened his eyes again, Newt felt like the room was spinning a little, but it couldn't have been. It spinned more and more, and he saw a black shadow, that was getting closer to him, closer and closer until he felt something that definitely wasn't his niffler touch his arm, grabbing him firmly. He heard both Dumbledore and Harry shout something that sounded like “No”, felt really sick, and then everything was dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We're now going back to 1927, but be sure that that doesn't mean we won't hear about 1996 Dumbledore again, or that there won't be more Grindeldore coming!  
> Re-reading the summary I made, I realised that some of you may be surprised that I'm taking the story back to the past, as you may have thought all of it was going to happen in 1996. I hope no one is disappointed, or that, if you are, you will still give the next chapter a chance.

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 will be posted tonight. I hope you like it!


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